Iran Hit With Third Round Of UN Sanctions

The UN Security Council succeeded in passing another round of watered down sanctions against Iran today. Th vote was 14-0, with only Indonesia abstaining.

The sanctions themselves are pretty moderate, although they do, for the first time, ban trade in both military and civilian goods.

The assets of several Iranian companies will be frozen, and Iranian Bank Melli and Bank Saderat will be subjected to addition all monitoring because of their links with Iran's nuclear program.

All UN members must exercise due diligence on new trade commitments with Iran, and authorize inspections of shipments to and from Iran by sea and air that are suspected of carrying materials prohibited by the sanctions.
None of this really matters, because the Iranians have been prepared for these moves for quite some time...even assuming that all the UN's member nations actually abide by them, which is doubtful.

This likely is the last action the Bush Administration will take on Iran's nuclear weapons program before Bush leaves office in ten months, and with a little luck, the mullahs can hope for a Democrat to win the White House come November. And the sanctions themselves are far too watered down to put any meaningful brakes on Iran's nuclear weapons program.

All in all, good news for Ahmadinejad and the mullahs and bad news for us.